New technologies, such as virtual reality, often draw to itself myths from other fields of interest and discourses. One such myth that has attached itself to virtual reality is the notion that virtual reality can provide a utopia for the mind, or true self, if the body can be cast off. It is this discarding of the body that my thesis aims to investigate in terms of Girardian sacrifice. Girard?s notion of sacrifice is built upon the observation of various cultures throughout history. It stands to reason that in our contemporary, digitally influenced, society, sacrifice, in some form, still persists. I argue that the body, when viewed as disposable, through the use of virtual reality, exhibits the same traits as the selected sacrificial victim. As the myth of a utopia for the mind, or true self, exists prior to the advent of virtual reality, traces of it, as well as the sacrifice I argue it entails, can be found in other texts as well. One such a text is The Chrysalids (Wyndham 1955). This text presents the reader with characters which I argue represent both the mind and body separately. The Chrysalids culminates in the characters representing the mind leaving for a utopian city whilst the character who, I argue, is most strongly associated with the body, Sophie Wender, is killed. It is also argued here in that the notion of abandoning the body is simply a myth since the inability to abandon the body is also discussed in terms of phenomenology, pointing out that the body can ultimately not be completely removed from the making of meaning. This phenomenological acknowledgement of the body, along with a critique The Chrysalids and cyber-utopia?s view of the body, forms the basis of my practical body of work. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Visual Arts / MA / Unrestricted

I am interested in the construction and meaning of space in Charlotte Brontë 's novels, and more specifically the idea of enclosure, in abstract and concrete terms. In a concrete sense, I wish to investigate the physical spaces the women in Charlotte Brontë 's novels inhabit: their homes, gardens, workplaces, clothing, and their bodies. In an abstract sense, I wish to investigate the cultural, psychic, gender, and linguistic spaces they inhabit: the cultural images and conventions women are enclosed within, the psychic space of the mind, and the narrative spaces they inhabit (and create). Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in their seminal text The Madwoman in the Attic, focus on the patriarchal enclosure of female characters in Victorian texts. As many Feminist critics of nineteenth century literature have noted (Vicinus, Agress, Auerbach), these enclosures are largely controlled by the patriarchy. Indeed, the protagonists of Charlotte Brontë's novels reflect the entrapment of the feminine protagonists in a patriarchal world. However, focus on this entrapment obscures the power that characters like Lucy Snowe, Jane Eyre, Shirley Keeldar, and Caroline Helstone generate from their enclosure experience. Each enclosure these three characters experiences fuels their education. Lucy, Jane, Shirley, and Caroline generate power and transformation of self from their time spent in these various enclosures. The education of these characters becomes the education for real women. In order to reclaim and reaffirm the value of enclosure for women, one may trace the positive notions of enclosure through the Jungian model of a three-stage gestation of women's rites of passage: enclosure, transformation, and emergence, as proposed by Bruce Lincoln. This gestational process results in psychological and spiritual transformation. All four protagonists participate in many cycles of the gestational pattern on micro and macro levels. This process results in their eventual transformation and emergence as wise women. It is vital to re-interpret the psychic and physical enclosures within Villette, Shirley and Jane Eyre as spaces that shape the identity of Lucy Snowe, Caroline Helstone, Shirley Keeldar, and Jane Eyre.

Technology plays a significant role in society and in entertainment. People hold an ambivalent attitude about technology that is often illustrated in science fiction films. Much like myth telling stories to teach a lesson, science fiction films caution viewers of the effects of powerful technology usage in culture today. This thesis examines X-Men to show how relevant principles found in myth continue to be relevant to media consumption. Using media ecology to inform the reader about the technological environment (Mumford, 1944), this analysis of technology portrayed in X-Men shows the implications real world technology, such as radiation, weapons, and artificial intelligence, has on contemporary society. Using mythical criticism to analyze the myth of Prometheus in modern day, this thesis shows that with proper accountability, technology may eventually be a tool unbound from the fear it generates. X-Men evaluates the natural human fear that comes from technology including, fear of fusion, fear of defeat, and fear of technological agency overcoming the human agent (Rushing and Frentz, 1989, but instead of leaving us hopeless, X-Men shows that technology can help society progress despite its potential for destruction.

Despite the frequency of use amongst scholars of IR, myth remains largely a term of colloquiality. However, this paper aims to argue that as a distinct temporal and normative structure within discourse, it is a powerful tool for understanding the ways in which narratives give meaning to political phenomena, not just by describing how they are, but how they ought to be. To explain the function of myth, a case study of Kosovo has been conducted. Much scholarly debate on the nature of internationally contested states exists, but we will make the argument that Kosovo is best understood as a being in a state of liminality, due to the conflicting nature of its political structures and foreign intervention. By joining the theory discourse of Laclau and Mouffe, with insights from psychoanalysis we suggest a framework for analysing the distinct nature of political myths. The utopian horizons of myth spell out two antagonistic narratives of sovereignty in Kosovo: one of European integration and market liberalisation, and one of unification with Albania.

I wanted to see if there were points of overlap between the various accounts of creation found in folklore, philosophy and physics. In order to justify such a project, I initially considered literature from each of these disciplines regarding the necessity of interdisciplinary dialogue generally and specifically the need for both intuition and logic when considering how anything actually exists. Through my research and casual observation, I hypothesized that opposition seemed to be a universal characteristic of nature. I then looked at how each discipline has described fundamentally opposing pairs and created a list of primary features that those accounts had in common. Finally, I demonstrated (in my study The Symmetry of God) the utility of an interdisciplinary approach to myth by showing how science and philosophy can improve our understanding of myth and conversely how folklore (myth in particular) may suggest meaningful and potentially revolutionary relationships not yet considered by science.

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Book Summary: Florence in the Early Modern World offers new perspectives on this important city by exploring the broader global context of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, within which the experience of Florence remains unique. By exploring the city’s relationship to its close and distant neighbours, this collection of interdisciplinary essays reveals the transnational history of Florence. The chapters orient the lenses of the most recent historiographical turns perfected in studies on Venice, Rome, Bologna, Naples, and elsewhere towards Florence. New techniques, such as digital mapping, alongside new comparisons of architectural theory and merchants in Eurasia, provide the latest perspectives about Florence’s cultural and political importance before, during, and after the Renaissance. From Florentine merchants in Egypt and India, through actual and idealized military ambitions in the sixteenth-century Mediterranean, to Tuscan humanists in late medieval England, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume reveal the connections Florence held to early modern cities across the globe. This book steers away from the historical narrative of an insular Renaissance Europe and instead identifies the significance of other global influences. By using Florence as a case study to trace these connections, this volume of essays provides essential reading for students and scholars of early modern cities and the Renaissance.

Steinbeck's use of allegory in East of Eden has caused much critical resistance, but recent work in allegory theory offers ways of rereading the novel that help mediate much of this criticism. The approach to allegory forwarded here, which allows for multiple bodies of referents and fluidity between text and referents, empowers readers with greater autonomy and individual authorship. In the case of East of Eden such an approach moves the novel beyond a simple retelling of the Cain-Abel narrative to establish a flexible mythic framework for use in an ever-changing world. By challenging dualistic thinking, narrow vision, and cultural inheritance, this framework seeks to order the world in ways that allow for a greater range of humanity and agency. A consideration of early 1950s America demonstrates the relevance of such a framework in a given historical moment.